Studien zur Neolithisierung Norddeutschlands am Fallbeispiel der endmesolithisch-frühneolithischen Fundplätze in Hamburg-Boberg

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Britta Ramminger
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 218538273

The final Mesolithic and Neolithic sites Hamburg Boberg 15, 15east and 20 are located south-east of the city of Hamburg, in northernmost Germany. The Boberg sites have been most extensively excavated in the 1950s and 1960s and are seen as key sites for the cultural transition between Ertebølle and the Funnel Beaker Culture. Special attention has been devoted to ceramics, which differ in decoration and manufacturing from the local pottery and have been designated as imports. These ceramics create a network of interactions, taken place in the Neolithisationprocess on the sites of Boberg, indicating inter-cultural communication. In discussion so far, there is a considerable disagreement in the provenances of the supposed imports, and interpretations are mainly based on typological analogies of single artefacts. The discussion concerning the chronology and function of the sites, as well as the imported ceramics, need to be reviewed with respect to the pottery spectrum as a whole. In this context, the role of the Boberg sites within the Neolithisation process in northernmost Germany is of special interest. By combining archaeological recording, typological studies, statistical evaluation and archaeometric analyses, it is possible to transcend simplistic analogies. Instead, we can identify intra-cultural processes of change and re-assess the extent to which imported pottery actually influenced local ceramic production. In addition, these studies will be extended to cover the northern German macro-region, providing a wider context for understanding Neolithisation processes. Sites contemporary to Boberg will be used to build up a picture of typological and archaeometric networks and assess their importance for the spread of the Funnel Beaker culture within a "multi-cultural" interaction system comprising both Ertebølle and early Neolithic communities.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants